Earth Day race provides arena for organic trials for St. Cloud area

Doug Lien, interim coordinator of the Tri-County Solid Waste Commission, displays containers to be used during the Earth Day Half Marathon in St. Cloud on Saturday.
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Dave Schwarz, dschwarz@stcloudtimes.com
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The Earth Day Half Marathon might be a fun athletic event for most people, but for Doug Lien, it's a test lab.

Distance runners tend to be environmentally conscious, says Lien, interim coordinator of the Tri-County Solid Waste Commission. So the St. Cloud half marathon offers the perfect opportunity to test new ways to reduce, reuse and recycle the waste generated at a big public event.

"It's kind of an experiment," Lien said.

In past years, the commission has tested different recycling containers and signs. This year, the focus will be on organic waste, such as food scraps and paper napkins.

Clearly marked containers will be on hand Saturday at St. Cloud State University's Halenbeck Hall to collect organic waste for composting.

Part of Lien's goal is to see how people react to the containers and whether they throw items into the proper bin. There will be three styles of containers with differently shaped openings and signs.

"I want to see how people react. Do they get it?" Lien said.

Earth-friendly event

Adding organics recycling is part of a continuing effort to make the Earth Day run a more Earth-friendly event, said Cory Bemis, a member of the organizing committee. That includes trying to keep debris picked up along the route and around aid stations, Bemis said.

The bins also help raise public awareness and interest in recycling, said Ron Seibring, director of sport facilities and campus recreation at St. Cloud State and one of the event's organizers.

"We've had very good luck with our recyclables, paper and plastic," Seibring said. Recycling organics is "the next step in continuing to decrease our carbon footprint," he said.

The solid waste commission bought five large green containers for about $55 each. Tri-County Organics, which operates a compost site in east St. Cloud, also will have some large, yellow, wheeled carts available for organics. Blue bins will collect recyclables like plastic water bottles.

Lien expects the bins will cause some confusion, and a stray plastic fork might get tossed in with the apple cores and banana peels.

"Part of it for me is I want to see what people do," he said.

He's also testing different types of compostable plastic bags in the bins, to see if any leak or break.

Effects on others

The experiment will help guide efforts to provide more recycling at large public gatherings. Often, organizers of those events would like to offer recycling but don't want to purchase the bins, Lien said.

That's where the solid waste commission can help, he said. Plans are already in the works to provide organics recycling bins at some public events this summer, including Takin' It To The Streets, an outdoor music festival in St. Cloud in August.

A recent garbage study by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency found that the portion of organics in the waste stream has grown to 31 percent from 26 percent in 2000. The agency estimates more than 519,000 tons of food waste generated each year could be composted.

The Tri-County Solid Waste Commission is moving toward setting a goal of recycling 5-10 percent of waste produced in Stearns, Benton and the western half of Sherburne counties.

Previously, only a few locations in Minnesota could accept food waste, but that is changing. One compost site, Tri-County Organics in St. Cloud, is operating, and another, Full Circle Organics near Becker, is expected to open soon.

Pilot programs to increase organics recycling in schools are underway at Kennedy Community School in St. Joseph and Lincoln Elementary School in St. Cloud.

With water bottles and organic waste recycled, that leaves little at the half marathon that will need to go into the garbage.

Lien said it's possible that such events could get close to achieving a goal of zero waste.

"I always thought it was kind of theoretical, but I think the goal is a good one, and it's kind of catchy. It catches people's attention," he said.

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